Application Portfolio Optimization: Value Up in a Down Economy

Application portfolio optimization plays a crucial role in reducing operating costs and fostering growth and innovation for companies during the pandemic. With 80% of CEOs accelerating digital transformation, enterprise architects and application portfolio managers must excel in their APM proficiency to ensure successful transformation initiatives. APM is more than an inventory of applications as it connects technology with business context to achieve a flexible, cost-effective application and technology portfolio aligned with business strategy. APM also reveals duplication, complexity, and business context of applications, reduces costs and risks, enables proactive management of application lifecycles, changes, and standards, aligns investment with business strategy, and enhances planning and execution. Examples of organizations benefiting from APM include a large healthcare insurer that used APM to reduce costs while engaging the enterprise architecture team to take a more strategic approach, and a major retailer that used APM to retire obsolete technologies and convince business leaders of the risks of using outdated applications.